The monograph “The Commentators of Post-Cinema. Serge Daney, Jean-Luc Godard and the Rephilologization of Cinema in the Digital Age” by Philipp Stadelmaier deals with the film critic Serge Daney (1944-1992) and the filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard (1930- 2022) two influential figures in French film culture who are brought together here for the first time. As students of the film magazine “Cahiers du cinéma” and the Nouvelle Vague, their paths crossed several times: Daney wrote about Godard, who made Daney his conversation partner in his video series “Histoire(s) du cinéma” (1988-1998). They are united by their love of cinema as well as the understanding of its media transformations and mutations. In his study, Stadelmaier sees Daney not only as a critic but also as a theorist of cinema, and Godard (following Daney) not only as a film revolutionary but as a careful reformer of the art form. Based on an analysis of Daney’s writings and Godard’s “Histoire(s) du cinéma”, they are interpreted as commentators who continue to interpret and perfect cinema as a large, meaning-open primary text – in order to give it new strength and sharpness in the digital age.
Philipp Stadelmaier: “The commentators of post-cinema. Serge Daney, Jean-Luc Godard and the rephilologization of cinema in the digital age”. Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2023. 288 pages, 49 euros.